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The transformation of innovative research ideas to production systems is highly dependent on the capability of performing realistic and reproducible network experiments. In this work, we present a network testbed consisting of container-based network emulation and physical devices to advocate high fidelity and reproducible networking experiments. The testbed integrates network emulators (Mininet), a distributed control environment (ONOS), and physical switches (Pica8). The testbed (1) offers functional fidelity through unmodified code execution in emulated networks, (2) supports large-scale network experiments using lightweight OS-level virtualization techniques and capable of running across distributed physical machines, (3) provides the topology flexibility, and (4) enhances the repeatability and reproducibility of network experiments. We validate the testbed fidelity through extensive experiments under different network conditions (e.g., varying topology and traffic pattern). We also use the testbed to reproduce key results from published network experiments, such as Hedera, a scalable and adaptive network traffic flow scheduling system.
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Toward live inter-domain network services on the ExoGENI testbed
A key dimension of reproducibility in testbeds is stable performance that scales in regular and predictable ways in accordance with declarative specifications for virtual resources. We contend that reproducibility is crucial for elastic performance control in live experiments, in which testbed tenants (slices) provide services for real user traffic that varies over time. This paper gives an overview of ExoPlex, a framework for deploying network service providers (NSPs) as a basis for live inter-domain networking experiments on the ExoGENI testbed. As a motivating example, we show how to use ExoPlex to implement a virtual software-defined exchange (vSDX) as a tenant NSP. The vSDX implements security-managed interconnection of customer IP networks that peer with it via direct L2 links stitched dynamically into its slice. An elastic controller outside of the vSDX slice provisions network links and computing capacity for a scalable monitoring fabric within the tenant vSDX slice. The vSDX checks compliance of traffic flows with customer-specified interconnection policies, and blocks traffic from senders that trigger configured rules for intrusion detection in Bro security monitors. We present initial results showing the effect of resource provisioning on Bro performance within the vSDX.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1642140
- PAR ID:
- 10080596
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- IEEE INFOCOM 2018 - IEEE Conference on Computer Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS)
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 772 to 777
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1109/INFCOMW.2018.8407026
